


Quietus

by fhsa_archivist



Category: Smallville
Genre: Angst, Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-01-01
Updated: 2004-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-05 18:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12799587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fhsa_archivist/pseuds/fhsa_archivist
Summary: Blending a couple of different Superman canons here...





	Quietus

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Haven, the archivist: This story was originally archived at [Fandom Haven Story Archive (FHSA)](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fandom_Haven_Story_Archive), was scheduled to shut down at the end of 2016. To preserve the archive, I began working with the OTW to transfer the stories to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. If you are this creator and the work hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Fandom Haven Story Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/fhsa/profile).

*** *** ***

 

The fabric of the couch felt old beneath her, old and expensive. The steady tick of a grandfather clock droned relentlessly in the otherwise complete silence of the penthouse high above Metropolis. Everything about the room screamed wealth in the softest of commentaries. She swung her feet to the floor, her shoes leaving faint lines of dirt on the rich, green brocade.

 

The French doors opened into the room, allowing the owner of the casually displayed affluence to sweep in. 

 

"You're awake, good."

 

She chose not to affirm the obvious; it probably wouldn't have mattered to her host anyway.

 

"I saved your life," he stated without preamble or braggadocio; it was a simple assessment of fact. "Without intervention from me, my men would have killed you." Lex Luthor crossed the room to a bar that dominated most of one wall and poured a glass of brandy, not deigning to offer her one.

 

"Funny way to look at it, since without orders from you they wouldn't have attacked me."

 

Luthor duly noted the difference.

 

"What sort of repayment are you expecting?" she asked, her voice bordering on bored, as if she really couldn't be bothered.

 

"Repayment?" he echoed, the thought having just occurred to him. Street waifs generally didn't have anything of interest to him so why would he have expected a return? He wandered over to the curving single-pane glass window that made up the outer wall of the room. "None. Skill ought to be recognized, don't you think? You're quite extraordinary at removing property, just not-so-good with picking your targets. Still, exceptional talent earns a certain respect. Wouldn't you agree?"

 

She lapsed back into silence.

 

"Ah, you don't believe in something for nothing? Skeptical is good; it'll keep you alive," he praised. He sipped from the glass in his hand. "You are free to go - no strings. I meant what I said. You provided me with a great deal of entertainment today. That's sufficient," he dismissed.

 

Luthor walked out of the room, leaving a proven thief alone in the midst of the irreplaceable artifacts and priceless antiques. After a lengthy hesitation, she stood and followed him. Her search was short, finding him one room away in an elaborate office.

 

"Yes," she said simply, answering the last question he'd posed. 

 

He looked up from the laptop and took her in, analyzing her demeanor and tone. "I take it, though, it would require superhuman effort on your part?"

 

She frowned, puzzling over his cryptic response. 

 

"To believe," he embellished, "or shall we say trust?" 

 

She didn't answer.

 

After a while filled only with silence, he smiled. "Perhaps there is something you can do for me."

 

And there it was. The payback. She didn't mind, expected it really.

 

"Perhaps you could go to work for me," he continued. "That way, at least, I wouldn't have to worry about the safety of my own property. Well, from you, at any rate," he amended. 

 

Lex watched her think it over. He read her perfectly, recognizing the moment she decided to accept, waiting on her to tell him out of polite accord.

 

"That's a pretty good offer, Mr. Luthor. How about we try it on for size?"

 

"Let's," he smiled. "I like the way you handle yourself, you're small and deceptive. I've been looking for a new bodyguard to replace the one I recently had to drop."

 

She remembered hearing about a Lexcorp security man who had recently fallen from a forty-seventh floor balcony.

 

"I expect total loyalty, there can be no compromise."

 

"Fair enough," she allowed.

 

"There are a few ground rules. You'll be on-call whenever I say you are and you'll travel with me at all times. Any problem with that?"

 

She shook her head.

 

"And there is a reporter, Clark Kent. You are never to harm him. There may be times when he becomes a liability or a problem; you can distract him, divert him, whatever you have to do to keep him out of the picture, but never hurt him. Do you understand?"

 

"Yes."

 

"How long have you been on the streets?"

 

"I don't have any family, not anymore," she said, answering the real question he was asking.

 

"I will never betray you," he promised, accepting the explanation as she told it. He already knew her family of Sisters had wrongly accused her and exiled her from the island they'd called home for millennia, forbidding her to return. "This," he indicated the office and by extension the entire building, "can be your family now, Mercy Graves," he promised, using the name she'd chosen for herself.

 

She never blinked at the use of her name though he could tell he'd surprised her in knowing it. He appreciated that, admired it. She was going to work out nicely here.

 

 

*** *** ***

 

(several months later)

 

 

Mercy swung a backhand, connecting hard with the chiseled, perfect jaw. Superman rocked backwards, reeling from both the blow and surprise. It wasn't often that someone could overpower him like that. He came back at her fast, knocking her to her knees. Mercy lurched unsteadily to her feet and readied another blow. It put him through a iron fence and into the ever present array of garbage and refuse that lined every alley in this little remembered part of Metropolis. Superman shook it off and got quickly to his feet, his suit immaculate, his hair and face dirtied and less formal now. He ran at her, pushing her into the brick wall. She managed to shove him off her and drew back a fist. He blocked, locking arms with her and yanking her around, slamming her into the opposite wall. Mercy got a hand free and straight-armed him, sending him staggering back. She followed and grabbed him by the throat, lifting his head for another punch.

 

And stopped. Staring. It was the first time she'd gotten a good look at the man Lex counted as his arch nemesis, the bane to his very existence. She let him go.

 

"You're him."

 

Superman didn't answer.

 

"He doesn't know." 

 

Superman didn't answer, but Clark Kent did. He didn't bother to deny it. He grabbed her shoulders in an iron grip.

 

"He can't ever find out," came the level warning. "I can protect myself, but my family can't. If Lex found out, they'd be in danger. He wouldn't be able to help himself."

 

Mercy's shoulders sagged under his hands. She seemed somehow defeated, utterly uncharacteristic for her.

 

"He won't ask me."

 

"Won't ask you what?"

 

"He won't ever ask me if Superman is Clark Kent. Your family is safe - from me, at least." She laughed, the sound a harsh, brittle noise. "And so, coincidentally, are you. I promised him." 

 

"Promised him?" Superman relaxed his grip on her, his fingers leaving lines of red that were rapidly turning dull black.

 

"That I'd never hurt Clark Kent." She shook her head, resigned to the impossibility of the situation. 

 

She walked away, leaving him behind in the alley. Superman reached her before she reached the street, catching her elbow to stop her. 

 

"You will never know what you've taken away from me today," she told him, looking down at the pavement.

 

He stepped in front of her. "I haven't taken anything away from you," he protested.

 

Mercy raised her eyes slowly to his. Clark was certain that he'd never seen such sadness.

 

"I've never lied to him. I know a different person than most people do. I know the man that you knew."

 

He grunted a denial. "Lex Luthor is only one kind of man, to anybody!"

 

"You don't believe that anymore than I do. Otherwise you would've killed him long ago. I know the man you befriended, the man who loves you."

 

Clark's heart froze. Lex Luthor must never know Superman's identity. He didn't know how to kill this woman, didn't know if he even could. But for his family... 

 

For his mother, for Pete, and Chloe, Lana, he'd find a way.

 

"If he learns your secret, he won't have learned it from me." Mercy moved away from him, his hand falling away, her head no less high and shoulders no less squared. Her soul was another matter. 

 

Clark found himself breathing again, actually weakened by the flood of relief that coursed through him. He knew he should let it go, let this woman walk away but he had to know:

 

"Why?"

 

She stopped, not looking back at him.

 

"Because family is supposed to be sacred. Because you didn't ask to be what you are, anymore than I did. Anymore than he did. Because you're right, if he knew he wouldn't be able to keep himself from using that information and that would destroy him completely." 

 

"Why?"

 

"Because he still loves you."

 

"Not any more!" Clark bit out.

 

"Be smarter than that!" she snarled back at him.

 

"What does he hold over you, Mercy?" Clark pressed. "Maybe I can help..."

 

"His hand!" Mercy interrupted bitterly, leaving Clark confused. She turned to look at him. "He held his hand out to me once, no expectations, no demands, no strings. I don't expect you to understand that."

 

He did, in ways she'd never know. Those years back in Smallville when all he'd ever done was offer Lex lies while Lex had offered him no expectations, no strings.

 

"I know you have to try and stop him, I understand that. But don't ever try and hurt him. If you do, I'll forget all the promises I've made. To you, to him, all of them," she emphasized. 

 

And Clark understood precisely what she meant. There would be no handshake to seal the deal, none was needed between two equal combatants. They each knew the consequences of breaking the pact. He understood that if he ever tried deliberately to destroy Lex then he would no longer be off-limits, nor would his family if Lex discovered who he was. 

 

He considered telling her she could have had that promise for free. He would thwart Lex, outwit him when possible, stalemate him otherwise, but never allow him to be harmed.

 

Mercy left the alley and Superman let her go, leaving the woman to her ghosts.

 

"I do know what you lost today," he whispered after her. "I'm sorry."

 

A few seconds later, when Clark Kent left the alleyway, she was nowhere in sight. He turned toward the Daily Planet, his route taking him past the Lexcorp building on his way. As he neared it, an overly long black car pulled up to the curb. Lex stepped out, followed closely by a tall blonde woman.

 

"Clark!" the head of Lexcorp greeted evenly. He fished a handkerchief out of a front pocket and brushed away a piece of unidentifiable debris from his old friend's dark hair. "I must say, you're looking a little worse for the wear these days."

 

"I was, uh, chasing down a lead," Clark returned in the familiar tone that Lex had learned to ignore long ago.

 

The one where Clark was making up his excuses as he went.

 

"We should have lunch," Lex invited. After glancing over Clark once again, he added "Not today."

 

"Sure, Lex, that'd be great."

 

"You seem a little down today, Clark, anything wrong?"

 

"No, just, you know," he dodged, hitching his shoulders, "didn't get the story."

 

"Give my secretary a call and she'll set something up for next week. Does that sound good?" Lex was back on the safer topic of lunch.

 

"Yeah. I'll see ya then."

 

Lex crossed the concrete courtyard to his glass and steel building, entering through a simple swinging door. Through the glare of afternoon sun on the tempered glass, Clark watched Mercy push the door open and admit her employer. She glanced up briefly, unfathomable eyes in an indecipherable face. Mercy followed Lex inside, pulling the door closed, shutting Clark out.


End file.
